Teacher and Student in the 21st Century: A Mixed Design Research

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effect of the teaching practice course on gaining 21st century teacher skills for pedagogical formation group teacher candidates. Participants views on the course, 21st century teachers, 21st century students, and metaphors created regarding these are also examined. We employed an embedded mixed design. In the quantitative part of the study, a single-group pre-test and post-test experimental design is used. The qualitative part is conducted with phenomenology. For data collection purposes, the 21st century teacher skills use scale, a semi-structured interview form, and a metaphor form were used. We found that the teaching practice course is effective for gaining 21st century teacher skills. This result can be interpreted as teacher candidates enrolled in pedagogical training programs being able to complete the program with acquired teaching skills and being capable of providing the necessary education to their students, composed of 21st century learners. Participants expressed their views on the concepts of 21st century teacher and 21st century student under different categories. Teaching practice courses contributed under the categories of professional skills, professional knowledge, and attitudes and values. Metaphors created by the participants on the concept of the 21st century teacher were related to guiding, updating knowledge, being productive, and being innovative, and on the concept of the 21st century student, they were related to developing, being able to load lots of information into the mind, fulfilling what is expected of them, and being in constant struggle. These results provide a significant insight into how teacher candidates perceive 21st century educational concepts and teacher-student roles.